Cabarete language institute
The last time I took a Spanish class was junior year in high school. Which was almost 6 years ago. Welcome reality check... I'm getting old. I knew in this program that I was going to take a Spanish class but I didn't realize it was going to be this intensive.
Every where we go in Cabarete, Spanish is the dominant language. Enter excessive hand motions and long blank stares. What everyone says is true,"if you don't use it, you lose it."
Somehow on our Spanish placement exam, I placed in the intermediate group. We met our professor Elana, who was born and raised in Spain. She is so nice and very patient with our lack of pronunciation and constant questions. I can honestly say I've learned a lot in our three, three hour Spanish classes so far and a lot of my Spanish background is coming back to me. At the same time, the frustration I felt about the verbs and conjugations in high school, still unfortunately exist. Luckily, in this class we are learning material that will help us communicate with the natives in the Dominican and hold a conversation on our own.
Each day after class at the Montessori, we go home with one of the students family. In my specific case, the father does speak little English. The first day we had lunch there, he was there, so there was a constant, "como se dices... ". It was quite an honor because the girls in my group, looked to me for help. The high school language and the language institute in Cabarete has helped my confidence in Spanish. Now I can have a slow, slightly paused consistent conversation with a person who is fluent in Spanish.
Also I keep wanting to speak in Spanish when I call and text my family from home. It is such a weird feeling, and I have to stop myself because the girls here understand me, but my family will question what happened to their daughter.
With that said, now I have to go finish my Spanish homework for class tomorrow.
Buenos Noches!